UNICEF scales back, may exit Russia

UNICEF's main goals in Russia — improving preventive health care, reducing the number of orphans and promoting children's rights — continue to be major concerns. Source: RIA Novosti

The move does not appear to be linked to the departure of USAID, which ceased operations in Russia on Monday after the Kremlin accused it of using grants to meddle in politics.

UNICEF, the United Nations children's
agency, is cutting back its presence on the ground in Russia and might even
exit the country, a development experts described as a significant blow to
children's welfare.

The decision reflects a failure to negotiate
a new operating agreement with the Kremlin, which is increasingly eager for
Russia to be regarded as a donor country rather than a recipient of aid.

A UNICEF spokesman told The Moscow Times on
Wednesday that negotiations were ongoing about a “new form of partnership,” but
it was unclear which of the agency's activities — research on children's
issues, spreading best practices or funding projects — would continue under any
new arrangement.

The former head of UNICEF in Russia,
Bertrand Bainvel, left Sunday for a new posting in Myanmar, two people close to
the organisation said.

UNICEF, which has operated in Russia since
1997, has 12 staff members in Moscow, most of whom are applying for other
positions in Russia and within UNICEF globally, regional spokesman John Budd
said in e-mailed comments Wednesday.

Former partners and people close to UNICEF
said that the scaling down of the organisation's operations would be
detrimental to child welfare and that the government's willingness to see
UNICEF activities decrease was peculiar given its focus on children's issues.

“I think it's a shame and a major political
mistake,” Alexei Golovan, a former children's ombudsman and current member of
the presidential human rights council, said by telephone Wednesday.

Golovan said UNICEF provided valuable
research as well as information about best practices and guidance for improving
policy on childhood poverty and the treatment of orphans and children with
disabilities.

“The situation for children remains fairly
alarming, and there are many negative tendencies,” he said.

UNICEF closed its country programme and
office in Russia on December 31, 2011, when it also stopped allocating
resources from the organisation's regular budget, including financing for
projects implemented by Russian nonprofits, Budd said.

The partnership office, which is managed
from Geneva and has the 12 employees in Moscow, has been operating since Jan. 1
and is fulfilling existing obligations. The agency's only other office outside
Moscow is in Vladikavkaz, in the North Caucasus.

“It's just finalisations negotiated with
the government,” one UNICEF employee said of the nonprofit's current
programmes.

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Money raised in Russia before 2011 will be
spent in Russia by the end of the year, Budd said. Contributions in 2011 and
2012 from Ikea, UNICEF's largest corporate partner, will be allocated to Save
the Children and spent in Russia.

Experts and partners said the
organisation's downsizing and possible departure was senseless and would
seriously harm efforts to improve child welfare.

UNICEF's main goals in Russia — improving
preventive health care, reducing the number of orphans and promoting children's
rights — continue to be major concerns.

UNICEF put the number of children in
Russian institutions at “more than 140,000” in a February survey, a figure it
says has not changed substantially since 2000. State statistics suggest that
the number of children in institutions is falling.

There are no tracking mechanisms for the
20,000 young adults leaving orphanages every year, but experts estimate that
only about 10 percent successfully adapt to normal life. Alcoholism, drug
addiction, criminality and suicide take the rest, experts say.

UNICEF's departure could also hurt Russia's
ability to implement an ambitious national children's strategy, the first of
its kind in Russia, which was approved this year.

“Now that we're beginning to put this
strategy into action, I think UNICEF's presence is more important perhaps even
than it was during the 1998 crisis,” Golovan said.

UNICEF's negotiations with the Foreign
Ministry have been dragging on for more than a year.

Russia received large amounts of
international aid after the economic hardships of the 1990s, but prosperity in
recent years has prompted the government to seek to become a donor nation and
reduce inflows of aid from abroad.

“Russia is one of the 'new donors' now and
refuses to accept the status of a recipient of development aid from all
international organisations,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich
said last month when explaining the expulsion of USAID.

The Kremlin has stepped up its foreign aid
contributions fivefold over the past six years to $470 million in 2010. It has
also offered funds to help Europe claw out of its financial troubles and
extended billions of dollars in loans to neighbour Belarus.

Last year, the Foreign Ministry even
drafted a proposal to establish its own international development agency to
finance projects in poorer countries.

A new law effective Nov. 20 requiring
foreign-funded NGOs involved in “political” activities to register as “foreign
agents” has also raised concerns about nonprofits' future in Russia.

UNICEF operates in 157 countries across the
globe and has extensive programmes in large emerging markets like China, Brazil
and India. It also conducts educational campaigns and political lobbying in
developed countries like Britain.

“The most important thing is that we're not
leaving UNICEF or the UN,” children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said by
telephone, indicating that Russia will continue to give funding to UNICEF for
programmes in other countries.

“We continue to work with international
organisations,” he said, adding that UNICEF's exit wouldn't have any impact on
his own work.

But both state organizations and NGOs told
The Moscow Times that projects run jointly with UNICEF, in some cases for a
decade, stopped receiving funding from the body this year.

UNICEF helped to bankroll a kindergarten at
the Moscow-based Centre for Curative Pedagogics where children with
disabilities are educated alongside their peers. The support lasted until this
year, when the funding was discontinued, said Roman Dimenshtein, chairman of
the board at the nonprofit.

“It's a pity but not a shock,” he said of
UNICEF's drawdown. “Western money is leaving, but we haven't educated our
businessmen about why they need to help.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited
the Centre for Curative Pedagogics during a trip to Moscow last year.

UNICEF's shrinking role has been a
significant loss for children, especially those living far from the relatively
affluent capital, said Denise Roza, head of Perspektiva, a nonprofit that
campaigns for people with disabilities.

Roza added that UNICEF had been
particularly valuable for “hands-on” work, and its strong government contacts
meant that policymakers paid attention to its research and activities.

Perspektiva lost about a third of its
funding when USAID was kicked out of Russia. Now, facing a loss of UNICEF
contracts, Roza said the organization is going to have to start looking for new
opportunities.